1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method, which impart an excellent toner transferring ability, thus a residual toner after transferring, which is a cause for fog, can be significantly reduced, and a high quality image can be formed without causing fog even after long term use.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, developments of information processing system employing electrophotography are remarkable. Particularly, a laser printer and a digital copier by which information is converted to digital signals to be recorded by light have been significantly improved in terms of printing quality and reliability. These have been applied to a full-color laser printer and digital copier in combination with high speed technology. Consequently, it is required to obtain higher image quality and higher durability concurrently in the image forming apparatus and image forming method at low cost.
Particularly, a polymerized toner having a small particle diameter has been used to obtain the higher image quality. It is difficult to clean the residual toner after transferring when the polymerized toner having a small particle diameter, and spherical shaped is used. As the measures for these, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2005-037562 discloses that a fluorine resin particles are added to the surface of an electrophotographic photoconductor (herein after may be referred to as “photoconductor”, “latent electrostatic image bearing member”, or “image bearing member”) as a lubricating component to reduce the surface energy and increase tone transferring ability, thereby increasing the cleaning property of the residual toner after transferring. However, there are some problems such as the toner transferring ability, maintenance of the cleaning property, and increase of the production cost in the proposal disclosed in JP-A No. 2005-037562. Further improvement and development are desired at present.